Five Flint area schools still awaiting decision on whether they will be invited to join the Saginaw Valley League

While it's not the county-wide mega-sports-league that some are pushing for, there's a possible solution being mulled over by the Saginaw Valley League that would potentially find a new home for remaining Big Nine teams Davison, Flushing, Powers Catholic and Carman-Ainsworth and also get Flint Northwestern back into a conference again.

All five teams have applied for admission into the Valley. Pete Ryan, executive director of the league, told the Midland Daily News recently that a committee will be formed to determine whether each school should be admitted. He said that each school's admission will be determined on an individual basis.

If all five were admitted, it's possible that the Valley could go to a division system, with enough North and South region teams to successfully split into two divisions.

"It's in the discussion and review phase among the current Valley schools as far as I know," said Northwestern athletic director Jeff Whitely.

Northwestern was a member of the Valley until the early 2000s, but became an independent when the school's enrollment dipped, taking the school from a Class A status to Class C. The school's enrollment has since went back up.

"We just couldn't compete with Class A schools (when the enrollment went down so drastically)," Whitely said. "The intention was to always try and get back into a league when our enrollment went back up."

The most obvious advantage to being a member of a league is it's easier for schools to fill out schedules and not going searching for opponents. But Whitely also mentioned that it gives the teams and athletes a chance to get more recognition for their accomplishments and form rivalries with league opponents.

"It just gives you more identity," Whitely said. "It gives kids a chance to get all-league awards, to form relationships and play against kids (regularly) from other schools and earn league championships. Right now, all we can play for is district, regional and state titles."

There is currently no timetable for the Valley League schools to make a decision, but if any teams are going to be allowed to join for the 2011-12 school year, the league principals would have to vote to admit them by Nov. 1.